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| Rufus Wainwright |
Today is Rufus Wainwright's birthday. He's one of The Grandma's favourite composers and singers and she wants to talk you about him. Rufus McGarrigle Wainwright is an American-Canadian singer, songwriter and composer.
He has recorded seven albums, numerous tracks on compilations and film soundtracks.
He has recorded seven albums, numerous tracks on compilations and film soundtracks.
Wainwright was born in Rhinebeck, New York, to folk singers Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III. His parents divorced when he was three, and he lived with his mother in Montreal for most of his youth. Wainwright has dual US and Canadian citizenship.
More information: Rufus Wainwright
At the age of 14, earned him a nomination for a 1989 Genie Award for Best Original Song. He was nominated for a 1990 Juno Award for Most Promising Male Vocalist of the Year.
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| Martha, Joan, Emmylou, Kate, Anna, Bruce & Rufus |
Through weekly shows at Cafe Sarajevo, Wainwright was on the Montreal club circuit and eventually cut a series of demo tapes produced by Pierre Marchand, who later produced Wainwright's album Poses.
The resulting tapes impressed his father Loudon, who passed them on to his friend Van Dyke Parks. Parks sent the recordings to Lenny Waronker, the DreamWorks executive who eventually signed Wainwright to his label.
Martha Wainwright, and mother, Kate McGarrigle, as well as many more of his family at the Knitting Factory in downtown Manhattan. Joined by other artists such as Grammy Award-winner Emmylou Harris, Velvet Underground front man Lou Reed and famed performance artist Laurie Anderson, the eclectic cast performed original and traditional Christmas-themed songs.
More information: Martha Wainwright
In June 2007, Wainwright was a part of the multi-artist True Colors Tour, which traveled through 15 cities in the United States and Canada. The tour, sponsored by the Logo channel, began on June 8, 2007. Hosted by comedian Margaret Cho and headlined by Cyndi Lauper, the tour included Debbie Harry, The Gossip, the Indigo Girls, The Dresden Dolls, The MisShapes, and Erasure. Profits went to the Human Rights Campaign.
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| Carrie Fisher and Rufus Wainwright |
Wainwright continued to tour during 2007 and embraced forms of expression not usually part of mainstream American music concerts.
These included performances of Judy Garland songs, and expressing his concerns against the current U.S. political situation. His performances were critically acclaimed.
These included performances of Judy Garland songs, and expressing his concerns against the current U.S. political situation. His performances were critically acclaimed.
In addition to his tenor singing voice, he plays piano and guitar, often switching between the two instruments when performing live. While some songs feature just Wainwright and his piano, his later work is often accompanied by rock instrumentation or a symphony orchestra, displaying complex layering and harmonies with an operatic feel.
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Wainwright is an opera enthusiast and likes Franz Schubert's lieder and Victòria dels Àngels. Some of Wainwright's songs are described as popera or baroque pop. Many of his compositions are densely packed amalgams of strings, horns, operatic choruses, and ragtime rhythms, with a warm vocal timbre.
In the present world, this technological, psychotic, politicised, nonsensical world, you have to believe that the good guys are going to win! That evil will be banished somehow!
Rufus Wainwright
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